What are plyometric exercises? How all this jumping and jumping builds strength, speed and power

If you’ve ever seen people at the gym or at the park jumping, bouncing, or throwing weighted balls on the ground, chances are they were doing plyometric exercises.

Examples include:

• box jumpingwhere you repeatedly jump in and out of the box quickly
• lateral jumps on skateswhere you jumped from side to side like a speeding skater
• quickly throwing bulky medicine ball against the wallor to the ground
• single-legged hops, which may involve jumping on the spot or through an obstacle course
• squat jumps, where you repeatedly squat down and then throw yourself into the air.

There are many of them more examples With plyometric exercises.

What all these movements have in common is that they employ the so-calledshortening stretching cycle“. This is where the muscles quickly stretch and then contract.

Potential benefits

Research shows that incorporating plyometric exercises into your routine can assist:

Research has shown that plyometric exercises can assist:

• older people who want to maintain and build muscle strength, improve bone health, improve posture and reduce the risk of falls
• newborn athletes who want to build explosive power needed to excel in sports such as track and field, tennis, football, basketball and soccer
• sportswomen who want to jump higher or change direction quickly (a skill useful in many sports)
• endurance runners who want to improve physical fitness, running time and sports performance.

And when it comes to plyometrics, you get out what you put in.

Studies have shown that the benefits of plyometrics are significantly greater when each jump is performed maximum effort.

Potential risk

Every exercise has its risks (just like… NO doing enough exercise!)

Plyometrics are high-intensity exercises that require the body to absorb a lot of impact force when landing on the ground or catching medicine balls.

This means that there is some risk of musculoskeletal injury, especially if the combination of intensity, frequency and volume is too high.

You can miss the landing and fall, land in a strange way and crush your ankle or tear a muscle if you overdo it.

National Strength and Conditioning Association, an American nonprofit educational organization that uses research to support coaches and athletes, recommends: :

• a maximum of one to three plyometric sessions per week
• five to ten repetitions in series i
• breaks between sets of one to three minutes to ensure full muscle recovery.

One meta-analysisin which researchers analyzed multiple studies and concluded that plyometric training is feasible and unthreatening and can improve the performance, function and health of older adults.

Overall, with proper programming and supervision, plyometric exercises can be a unthreatening and effective way to improve health and athletic performance.